The Return From Somewhere Else

Wow, it's been awhile! The show in December went very well. And then the season opening musical at "my" theatre needed a stage manager. Three weeks before opening--4 weekend run--and no one had stepped up. So I did. I hadn't stage managed a musical before. Luckily, it had a 4 person cast, so no huge amounts of people to keep track of. I didn't call the cues, but I whipped the backstage area into shape. 20 scenes, 6 tables, 16 chairs, misc other furniture....and each scene stood on its own. Meaning constant set changes and costume changes. With only myself and my ASM (and assisted by the 4 cast members whenever possible) to get things done. Whew! I taped up set diagrams on both sides backstage to keep us all sane....even the cast were saying "What's next?"

My ASMs were awesome! I had one each show--ASM 1 couldn't work the entire run, so another woman who often SMs volunteered to work the shows the first one couldn't. I was nervous about someone who usually SMs and is used to being the one in control being an ASM but it worked out great! ASM 2 watched the show once, then stepped in with no rehearsal. I did walk her through everything beforehand, but she just followed my lead and did everything perfectly. And after seeing my work on the previous show in September, her SMing mentor told her he'd taught her everything he could and she needed to work with me to learn more! So now I have a protege. :-) And a very capable one at that!

I was asked to run for the board of directors as recording secretary....and I was elected...although I'm not sure elected is the correct word, as no one was running against me. And I ended up chairing the hospitality committee (the entire committee had been vacant for at least a year--each show's producer had taken on the duties), so now I find members to staff the front-of-house duties. And 5 people joined the committee--so I've got help. Yay!

As for stitching, I did do a small amount of backstitching on the Mini Mandala a few weeks ago. I've been knitting a lot....I finished my gray scarf, and I've been working on a pink one for DD. I'll take/post pictures sometime. I just got black yarn to make a scarf for DH (he borrowed my blue one once when snowblowing the driveway and was impressed with how warm it was!) and gray yarn for a hat for me.